The major goal of this project is to determine the extent to which different types of social support available to families of handicapped children prevent and/or ameliorate the stress and distress associated with the birth and rearing of a handicapped child. The major objectives are: (1) identify the types of assistance that are viewed as sources of support; (2) relate these sources of support to both (a) parental physical and emotional well-being and (b) parental styles of interaction used with their handicapped children; and (3) identify those factors and variables which both enhance and inhibit parents from seeking social support. This project is guided by two conceptual frameworks: social network theory and ecological psychology. The hypotheses that social support accounts for a significantly larger proportion of variance in our dependent measures (well-being and styles of interaction) than does handicapping condition will be tested in two separate studies with 100 subjects in each investigation. Different types of social support available from seven operationally defined ecological systems and social units will be obtained through interviews and administration of different social support assessment instruments, and then related to several measures of well being and styles of interaction using hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Child covariate measures will be partialled from the analyses as a means of assessing the unique contributions of social support and handicapping condition to the variance accounted for in the dependent measures. The major outcome of this research project is the identification, development, and implementation of preventive intervention strategies that will make the birth and rearing of a handicapped child as normal as possible while at the same time insuring the integrity of the family unit.